


Rewriting History (and Maybe Finishing That TPU Degree)

by Persephone_Kore



Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 02:13:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8559358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persephone_Kore/pseuds/Persephone_Kore
Summary: Agatha is thrown across time and space during the attempt to de-stasis Mechanicsburg, landing in Beetleburg while the yet-to-be-legendary Heterodyne Boys are studying at TPU.





	

Everything was almost in position when the Castle wailed an alarm and the enormous talon full of eyes pierced into normal time. Everything seemed to happen all at once, and then it happened _backward_. Agatha had heard of having your life flash before your eyes before, but she was fairly certain you weren't supposed to have other people's. Especially not _lots_ of other people's, pressing down and in all around her. She saw love and hate and fear and then destruction, destruction, destruction, and her stomach turned when she recognized the slaver wasps. She tried to step forward, to do _something_ , and only succeeded in seeing-feeling-hearing more and making herself dizzy. 

Then it stopped and she floated numb and reeling for a second or an eternity in something that seemed idyllic by comparison, and then crashed back to earth. 

Literally crashed. She landed hard in a clatter of wood and pottery, and something just shy of scalding soaked her hip. When she struggled to sit up, feeling rather bruised, hands caught hers and steadied her. "Are you all right, Miss?"

Not as strong as a Jäger's, but distinctly a Mechanicsburg accent, so she probably hadn't gone too far, which probably also explained how calm he sounded. Nothing felt broken -- well, no body parts. From what little she could see through her hair, there was a low table lying on its side and she hadn't done their tea set any favors. "I think so, thank you," she said, letting her unseen helper pull her upright. He held on to her hands until she got her feet under her, and she let go and started raking her hair out of her eyes. "I'm so sorry about this. I'm Agatha Heterodyne and I was trying to--

She got a look at him then and stopped, mouth still open, mind going momentarily white-blank. She knew that face. She'd never seen it quite like this but she'd worn an older version of it at her throat most of her life. 

Bill Heterodyne blinked at her in boyish surprise. "Are you really?"

Agatha sat down on his couch with a thump in spite of her tea-soaked skirt. "Well," she said weakly, "last I checked."

"I doubt it's changed," said the boy on the other end of the couch. That had to be her Uncle Barry, but Agatha was having a harder time recognizing him. He looked -- younger than Bill. Well, he would be. But that made him so much younger than she remembered him that her mind felt a little sprained. Or maybe that was the trip through -- through -- 

All the evidence suggested, through time. Agatha swallowed. 

"I'm Barry Heterodyne," he went on, as if she needed confirmation. "That's Bill. But I can't remember an Agatha in the family tree," he added almost apologetically. "Do you know how we're related?"

"This is going to be hard to believe," she said, "but -- I'm Bill's daughter. I came back in time by accident." Fright seized her and her heart pounded. Her _town_ \--! "And I really have to get back to where I was," she added urgently, trying not to sound completely horrified. "I mean, forward to when I was. I'm afraid something horrible is happening to Mechanicsburg."

They both looked gratifyingly alarmed, but Bill sat down on the arm of the couch beside her. "Do you know how to?" he asked seriously. Agatha bit her lip and shook her head. "Because I wouldn't have thought going back in time was even _possible_ , given the energy requirements, and I don't know how to send someone forward any faster than they'd ordinarily go. I could age somebody faster, but that wouldn't do any good--" He hesitated. "And _theoretically_ I know how to put someone in stasis so they don't age at all, but it's based on notes from an ancestor who was convinced this would prompt angels to come and kill you, so I am a little iffy on that one." 

Agatha winced. "No, that won't help. I really don't think they were angels, but that was the problem -- the Baron --" Her brain caught up enough to remind her that first, this wasn't going to tell them much and then, more helpfully, that that was probably just as well. "Attacked the town and put it in stasis, and I was trying to fix it, but these... things... showed up." 

"Okay," Bill said. "If you tell us when that happens, then depending on how time travel works, we can either try to keep it from happening or be ready to deal with it when it does."

Under their feet, a trilobite-shaped clank buzzed over the floor and started scrubbing it. Another one scampered onto the couch, nudged at her hip, and set to work on the upholstery.

Agatha stared at Bill for a moment and opened her mouth to explain why his plan was unlikely to help. 

And then stopped. 

She _didn't_ know how time travel worked. 

Nothing seemed to be stopping her from warning them right here, right now, about Lucrezia. If they could stop _her_ \--

If they could stop her, probably nobody in her generation would be born quite the same, or at all, really. Wouldn't exist. Lucrezia had been more or less directly involved in Agatha's own birth (more, obviously) and Tarvek's and Gil's (less, and possibly by accident in Gil's case)...

...But so many other people would live. She thought about passing backwards through what must have been the Other War and shuddered. "If I tell you how to get ready for it, and you're actually around to do that, it _probably_ won't happen at all," she said. "At least, I don't see how it would." She swallowed and made herself say, "So I will. Because that's not... that's not even close to the worst thing."

Bill looked at her closely and then nodded. "It sounds like this is going be pretty involved. Barry, grab us some notebooks, will you? And ask Judy to get Agatha something else to wear so she can get cleaned up."

"You're taking this well," Agatha said. "Do you actually believe me?"

Bill shrugged and smiled at her. "Well, you did appear out of thin air over our coffee table wearing trilobites. You're either a relative caught up in something weird or an impostor with really bad planning. You don't sound like you're lying, and we've got a couple of ways to check." The smile fell away. "Although I'd _rather_ not go with the one back at home if you are lying."

Agatha puzzled over that for a moment, then, "Oh! Because the Castle would kill me. That's all right, I don't mind taking the test in the Chapel again. Er... for... the first time, I suppose. Chronologically." 

Bill's eyebrows shot up, and he grinned. "Well, if you're that confident...."

Barry returned with the notebooks and Lil-- _Judy_. Agatha stood up again and hugged her, pretty much on reflex. 

Judy hugged her back and then took her by the shoulders and set her away, looking puzzled. "Ah, nice to meet you?" 

Agatha's heart sank. Of course Judy didn't _know_ her. How... strange.

"She's probably Bill's daughter from the future," Barry explained. 

"Seriously?" 

"So the evidence suggests," Bill said. "We'll try and work out the mathematics this evening." 

They did that -- after Agatha got a bath and changed into the fresh clothing Judy brought her. Agatha felt slightly strange about somebody she'd just met buying her clothes, but she had to wear something, and as Bill was both her father and the Heterodyne, she supposed it actually was sort of his responsibility. 

She wasn't the Heterodyne herself anymore, or yet, now _that_ was peculiar.

The calculations were... disheartening. Traveling forward in time shouldn't be as intrinsically prohibitive in terms of energy cost as traveling backward (which she had already accomplished, however inadvertently), but they couldn't figure out how to start short of inducing stasis and hoping an "angel" pitched her to the right time and place, which was obviously unreliable. Furthermore, there was a distinct possibility that the future she'd left simply didn't exist anymore. 

Agatha's heart hurt for missing everybody she was leaving behind or had left behind or was about to doom to nonexistence, and the weight of history she'd fallen through felt like it was toppling in on her all over again, but she tried to control herself and summarized the past forty years as best she could to her often incredulous but very attentive audience. She even told them about the possession, which she was usually wary of mentioning, and they accepted it as gravely as her identity.

At the end of it Bill said, "But Lucrezia Mongfish is... what, about Barry's age? She _can't_ be beyond hope."

Agatha discovered that hope in another person could actually be a source of despair, and much against her will, at this point she broke down in tears. 

Both of the Heterodyne Boys were very distressed by this. Bill apologized and promised to be careful, which did not much comfort her, and Barry just hugged her, which actually did even though it wasn't likely to address the problem at all. 

Judy asked when she'd last eaten and then fed her a late dinner. That didn't make the situation any better, but it did make everything seem slightly more bearable, or possibly just hazier since as soon as she started digesting it Agatha began to feel exceedingly sleepy. Probably, as she explained muzzily to Judy, because she had worked through the last couple of nights. 

"--Worse than Klaus," she half-heard voices saying as she fought unsuccessfully to stay awake. "Not back from the library... morning... well put her to bed...spare room." Someone scooped her up and carried her -- the tilting made her feel even more nearly asleep, and just a little as if she was falling through time again instead. 

There was... something important... Agatha forced herself awake enough to mumble, "Don' touch the locket."

"We know." Very seriously. Was that Barry? "We won't."

She was set down on a mattress and melted into it with relief.

* * *


End file.
